Kimchee Mandu

While I was at the Korean grocery store, I thought I would try and make some mandu again. This is something that I have done on intermittent occasion in the past, but the last time I made any was during finals in law school. And, since my students will have their final this friday, I thought it was about time for another go. The last time, I made a shrimp, tofu, and spinach mandu. It was really dry. This time, I wanted to go for something a little more traditional. And so, kimchee mandu.

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10 Year Reunion: Late Night - Del Taco

When I think about the food I ate in St. Louis, the list just wouldn't be complete without Del Taco. And so, after breakfast at Uncle Bill's, lunch at Seamus McDaniel's, dinner at Rigazzi's, awkward but ultimately enjoyable reunion drinks at Blueberry Hill, and a nightcap at Halo Bar, my wife drove me over to Del Taco.

10 Year Reunion: Dinner - Rigazzi's

After an extra large breakfast at Uncle Bill's, and then after lunch a Seamus', I decided that we needed to eat dinner at Rigazzi's. Rigazzi's is a family style Italian restaurant on The Hill. During my early college years, I was on the track team and they had an all you can eat spaghetti special, which was good for carb loading. During my later college years, I went there because they had comically large beers, which was good for carb loading of a different kind. And then, after college, my wife and I would go to dinner and enjoy both the spaghetti and the beers. In fact, our last dinner before leaving St. Louis for Chicago, we ate at Rigazzi's. And so it was only fitting that I chose this for the reunion weekend dinner.

10 Year Reunion: Lunch - Seamus McDaniel's

There are some people who like to go to various fancy or trendy restaurants and collect food memories like merrit badges. I have never been into this, and I particularly was not into this when I lived in St. Louis. Seamus McDaniel's will never be called a fancy or a trendy restaurant. It is a modest pub with modest food, most of which is not even very good. But Seamus McDaniel's in Dog Town was a place that I went to for just about every occasion, and it sums up what food was to me in St. Louis.

10 Year Reunion: Breakfast - Uncle Bill's

This May, it will have been ten years since I have graduated from college. There was a reunion. Although the reunion started on Friday, we weren't able to get there until Saturday. And, since I don't like things like reunions or people, I decided that I would forgo most of the scheduled reunion weekend activities and spend the day eating. For breakfast, we decided that we would start with Uncle Bill's Pancake House.

pretzel hot dog buns - attempt 1

I loved the pretzel rolls I made last week. And I thought to myself, how awesome would it be to have this as a hot dog bun? Maybe the pretzel roll taste would be too strong for a frankfurter, but it just made so much sense with brats. And so began my quest for the perfect brat bun.

Stella's Diner

Sunday was warm. Unseasonably warm. Unbelievably warm. We just knew that we had to go out for brunch, and we needed to be eating it outside. And so began the great outdoor brunch hunt of 2011.

Renaldi's on Broadway in Lakeview Chicago

On Fridays, I like to eat pizza. Growing up in New Jersey, public school lunches were always pizza on Fridays. When I was very young, the only option was an Ellios-like piece of cheese pizza. It wasn't until much later in my public school life that pepperoni then became an option. I somehow also recall a sausage option, but I may just be mis-remembering that. Regardless, even though Friday was always pizza, and regardless of how few options for toppings there may have been, I never got tired of it. And I'm still not tired of it. That's how, last Friday, Sarah and I ended up at Renaldi's.

Fish Tostadas

A couple weeks ago, I bought a big-ol-bag of frozen tilapia. Last week, it was breaded, baked, and served with chorizo sprouts. That was good, but the tilapia was fishy. Not in a good way, like mackerel. But in a way that you might anticipate from frozen fish sold in a big-ol-bag. I didn't mind that much, since the real star of the meal was going to be my chorizo experiment. But, this week, I wanted the fish to stand out. So I decided on fish tacos.

pretzel rolls

I had made some pimento cheese to put on some burgers. And to make it extra special, I decided to make some pretzel rolls. The first time I had a pretzel roll was at Weber Grill. They serve them with cheddar spread before your dinner gets there. It's amazing. Then, I had them at The Counter. It was a special bun option that was so popular, it's now a permanent option. Pretzel rolls are perfect for burgers because, no matter how juicy the burger, the pretzel roll is always up to the task. I made these a while back using a pretzel roll recipe from Stresscake, and it worked out ok. But I've recently realized that, since I use rapid rise yeast, I need to change certain things. So I decided to make some modifications. And this time, I couldn't be happier.

pimento cheese

I am easily prone to suggestion. A few weeks back, I saw an episode of Diners Drive-Ins and Dives that talked about pimento cheese. And then, last week, Sunny Anderson made pimento cheese on her show. It didn't really even look that interesting to me at the time, but it stuck in my mind. With summertime coming, I was already thinking about artificially yellow things like french's mustard or american cheese. And this sounded like it would hit the spot.

Truffles?

Sarah loves chocolate. On the same episode of 5 ingredient Fix: Dessert Bar that somehow inspired us to make meringue, they also made truffles. Generally, I don't care for desserts and I also don't like to watch people making dessert on TV. Specifically, I don't like watching episodes about candy-making. It usually involves things that I just don't have in my kitchen, like a candy thermometer, a copper mixing bowl, or heavy cream. But, like with the meringue, they made a dessert that I've always thought was quite complicated but looked quite easy to make. And so we made truffles.

Meringue!

Sunday morning, Sarah and I were watching an episode of 5 Ingredient Fix where the host had a pastry chef guest. Among other things, they made meringues. I've never liked meringues. I always felt like they left a waxy feeling in your mouth. And I was always confused about why they didn't taste more cookie-ish. But Sarah loves meringue, so I added the ingredients we would need for meringues to the week's grocery list.

Paradise Empanadas Cafe

After the Cubs game and then drinks around Wrigleyville, Sarah and I started stumbling home. We were starving because, for some reason, we elected not to eat anything that afternoon. So we went to Paradise Empanadas Cafe at Broadway and Belmont in Lakeview. It's a new empanada place near the gym we pay for a membership to. If you're counting: in 2011, I have been to the gym the same number of times at I have eaten empandas.

Hot Pockets

I've chronically been thinking about empanadas. But all the recipes for empanada dough all seemed too fussy. Plus, I don't really like traditional empanada fillings. I don't like ground beef with olives or ground beef with raisins. What I really wanted was a hot pocket.

OCD manicotti

My wife makes the best veggie manicotti. And whenever I want manicotti, I usually have her make it. But last week, I was watching an episode of America's Test Kitchen, and they pointed out how annoying it is to try and fill those manicotti shells. Instead, they used no-boil lasagne noodles. It was ingenious. Plus, the way they did it fit perfectly in a 9x13 dish. The OCD in me just had to try it.